Mako Baths
by Prisoner Len
Summary: Zack needs a favor. A huge favor. And Cloud only agrees to it because leaving Sephiroth in the labs doesn't sound like such a good idea. CxS; oneshot.


Silver hair cascaded into Cloud's vision and he held back a moan as a kiss descended on the sensitive skin of his neck. He squirmed and let out a quiet laugh as the body above him straddled his hips and stared down intently at him with piercing green cat-like eyes. Cloud arched his back, grinning when a sound of approval escaped the other man's lips. A sly look appeared on his companion's face and a hand started traveling south, wrapping around his—

"Spike?" the man suddenly spoke up.

Cloud furrowed his brow in confusion. That wasn't Sephiroth's voice at all. He looked up at his lover, and let out a startled yelp. He wasn't laying beneath the Great General; he was under his best friend _Zack_!

"Spike, wake up!" the voice hissed, followed by a rough smack to Cloud's left shoulder.

The blonde jerked back to consciousness, bolting upright and looking around wildly. His dream started to slip away and sure enough, he was laying in his bunk in the cadet barracks. Zack Fair was perched on the edge of his bed, giving him a baffled look, and the snores of his bunkmates invaded his ears. With a sigh, he flopped back down onto the bed and rolled onto his stomach.

"What the hell do you want, Zack?" he asked, voice muffled by his pillow.

"I got called out to a mission today." the raven-haired teen simply said, taking the chance to ruffle his friend's hair.

"And? Have fun, I'll see you whenever." Cloud grumbled, still half-asleep.

"Well, see…" Zack tapped his chin in thought. "How do I explain this? You know how when I go in for my mako bath, I end up totally out of it for the entire day and Angeal has to watch me?"

Cloud didn't say a word, but nodded his head; he'd had to watch his friend a couple of times while Angeal had been out on missions. "Out of it" was an understatement. Zack had barely been able talk, his limbs were like noodles, and he'd had a weird craving for peanut butter. Which he was allergic to. Not to mention it was like his mental capacity had degraded to that of a five year old's.

"A friend of mine has his mako bath today." the teen explained. He poked around Cloud's backpack while the blonde had his face buried in his pillow. "And since Genesis and Angeal are out in Wutai, and I'm going on a mission—"

"You thought I'd want to do it?" Cloud sighed, turning his head. He frowned at Zack's hands and whacked his bag out of them. "Stop going through my things, asshole. And I don't want to watch your friend."

"C'mon, Spike!" Zack whined loudly, pouting. "Seph really needs someone to watch him—if nobody does it, he ends up being watched by that creepy ass Hojo all day and they experiment on him and—"

"Sephiroth?" Cloud repeated, gaping up at the SOLDIER. A pillow slammed into him, followed by a "shut the hell up, Strife". He struggled into a sitting position, trying to untangle himself from his sheets. "Zack, I really doubt they'd let me—"

"It'll be fine." Zack waved his friend's worries away and shrugged. "Besides, I'm going to give you the key to my room. You guys can crash there until I get back tomorrow morning. Will you do it?"

Cloud sighed again, looking down at his sheet-covered lap. On one hand, he really didn't know if he could handle taking care of anyone other than Zack; he knew the teen well enough to be able to understand every odd sentence and gesture he made after his mako baths. But Cloud didn't _know_ Sephiroth—he'd only seen him in passing at Zack's—and the man was practically twice his size. If Cloud didn't watch him, though, he'd end up stuck in the labs for an entire day, and he'd heard from Angeal just what they enjoyed doing to the General down there.

"Alright." Cloud mumbled, looking up at Zack. "I'll do it."

Zack let out a quiet little cheer and wrapped the blonde in a tight hug, then started rambling off everything Cloud would need to know. Cloud whacked his arm, told him to wait, and started digging around his bag for a pad of paper and a pen. At least he'd get a day with his hero. Even if the man wouldn't remember it.

* * *

><p>Cloud shuffled uneasily as he stepped off of the elevator on the floor all of the labs were on. He always felt uncomfortable going there—like everyone on that floor wanted to poke him with needles and see what would happen if they injected him with monster blood or something.A particularly scary-looking man in a labcoat bumped into him with a cart full of vials and blood samples and Cloud murmured an apology before rushing down the hallway, scanning the doors for 14A—the room Zack had said Sephiroth would be in.<p>

13B, 13C… 14A. Cloud stopped in front of a large white door and shifted his weight, pulling his backpack further onto his should and looking around. Was he just supposed to… go in? After a moment's hesitation—and because he was being stared at by various people in labcoats—he pushed the door open and stepped inside. It was a rather large lab, with human-sized capsules that Cloud suspected were used for the baths, and tables full of vials and glowing fluids. A hunched over greasy-haired man that Cloud recognized as Professor Hojo was hovering over an open book, scribbling down numbers and words with a pen. He didn't even look up when the blonde stepped into the room.

And sitting right in the middle of the lab, head drooping and eyes closed, was General Sephiroth in a wheelchair. He was naked from the waist up, and his jacket was draped across his lap. There were so many spots where Cloud was positive they'd injected him with _whatever_—both dried up and still bloody—that the blonde suddenly felt an enormous amount of pity for his hero. He took a few careful steps further into the lab until he was a few feet away from the silver-haired man and cleared his throat.

"Professor Hojo?" he spoke up, his gaze flickering from the General to the professor, and back again.

"Yes, what is it?" the man growled, not looking up from the book. He scribbled down something else, then picked up a vial and examined it. "I haven't got all day. If you're here for it, take it."

_It_? Cloud twisted his face in confusion and opened his mouth to ask what the man meant by "it". Then he realized Hojo was probably talking about Sephiroth and frowned; the General was _not_ an "it". He was a human being—just like everyone else. Giving the creep a dark look, he folded the coat up onto the General's lap so it wouldn't catch in the wheelchair, then stepped around to the back and started to leave the lab. Not once did Hojo check to see who was taking Sephiroth. Cloud was surprised; he had expected to be asked for identification—or told he had to go under some form of experimentation before he leaved. Nobody even gave him a second look as he wheeled the silver-haired man down the hallway.

They were thankfully the only occupants of the elevator, and as soon as the doors slid shut, Cloud started digging through the bag he had slung over his shoulder for a tissue. He knew Angeal got injections, but they were never _this_ bloody. He set to work dabbing at the dripping holes on the mans arms, muttering to himself.

"_Zack_ wouldn't have let this happen." he murmured, frowning at the marks he probably could have played connect-the-dots with.

"Zackary gets 'em, too." a slurred voice replied, causing Cloud to drop the tissue and jump in surprise. He jerked his gaze up and met that of the General's, though his usually piercing green eyes were slightly more pale than usual and his iris seemed to be _moving_. Sephiroth frowned at him for a moment, then closed his eyes again. "Who are you?"

"Cadet Cloud Strife, sir. Zack got called out on a mission and asked me to watch you." the blonde nervously explained, scooping the bloody tissue off of the elevator floor. The man opened his mouth to say something, but Cloud cut him off. "I've taken care of Zack a few times, and he made me write a ton of shit down."

Sephiroth laughed weakly—a sound that was much more like harsh breathing—and pried his eyes open again. "Stupid Zack."

The elevator dinged, and Cloud shoved the tissue into his pocket. He snatched the General's jacket and pulled it up over his bare chest just in time for the doors to slide open to reveal the SOLDIER floor. He wheeled the man out into the hallway and started down it, ignoring the quirked eyebrows and weird looks; he imagined it was probably a little weird to see their General being wheeled down the hall by a cadet. The second they got to Zack's door, his hand dove into his pocket… and came back empty.

"Shit." Cloud mumbled, pulling his bag forward and digging around inside.

"Hm?" Sephiroth grunted airily, head still drooping.

"I think I forgot to get Zack's key." the blonde replied miserably. It was probably the other way around—_Zack_ forgot to give _him_ the key.

Sephiroth jerkily shook his head, hand dropping into his lap. "Jus' go to mine." he slurred, attempting to get his hand into one of the pockets of his jacket. It took his a few tries, but he finally shoved his hand inside and pulled out a set of keys, clutching them in his hand. "It's just… down there somewhere."

"Down there somewhere" was horribly vague; the SOLDIER floor was vast, and Sephiroth hadn't even pointed in any direction. The man was silent again, and Cloud bit his lip, looking down at the keys clutched in a tight fist. He leaned over the General's shoulder and tugged on the keyring, letting out a relieved sigh when the grip loosened and the keys slid from his hand. He flipped through the keys, pausing when he came across one similar to Zack's that had a number on it.

And then he turned around, because Sephiroth's room was directly across the hall from Zack's. "Down there somewhere" indeed.

Shaking his head with a smile, he stepped across the small hallway, unlocked the door, and opened it. And then he stood there in the doorway of his hero's home, and just _stared_; Sephiroth's apartment wasn't at all what he expected—books were piled messily on a large coffee table in the middle of the room in front of a gigantic black couch. A TV bigger than Cloud had ever seen was shoved up against one wall, and the wall behind the couch was absolutely covered in posters for horror movies. He took a cautious step into the living room, nudged a pile of clothes out of the way, and returned to the hall for the General.

However, once Sephiroth was actually inside the apartment, Cloud really wasn't sure what to do. With Zack, it was straight to bed before he could do anything stupid. But Sephiroth seemed much more docile after a mako—

"I wanna watch a movie." Sephiroth mumbled, lifting his head and letting it loll back against Cloud's arm. "About the axe murderer. That one."

He pointed at the TV, and Cloud had no fucking clue what movie he was talking about. Nevertheless, he nodded down at the man and smiled. "Want to watch it on the couch or—"

"Of course I wanna be on the couch." Sephiroth interrupted, frowning up at him, his eyes half open. "Not gonna sit on the floor. I'm not a dog."

"I never said you were, sir." Cloud commented, pushing the chair closer to the couch. He lifted one of the General's arms and slung it over his shoulder, then helped the man stand.

Sephiroth teetered dangerously for a moment, hunched over and swaying slightly, then he took a shaky step forward and slumped onto the couch. As soon as he caught his breath, an arm snaked out and wrapped around Cloud's waist, eliciting a surprised squeak from the cadet as he was pulled down onto the General's lap. Immediately, Sephiroth buried his face into the blonde spikes and sighed.

For a brief moment, Cloud really wondered if something in mako made SOLDIERs just that much more clingy, because Zack had done the exact same thing before. He sat there patiently while the General seemed content to just nuzzle his hair, then cleared his throat and started to pry the man's hands off of him. "I need to start your movie, sir."

Sephiroth nodded slowly, releasing him and letting him climb to his feet. Cloud stumbled back slightly, then whirled around and headed for the TV, blushing furiously; if he had to sit on the General's lap for the entirety of the movie, he had a feeling he'd have a serious problem down south. He plopped down in front of the entertainment stand and started flipping through the DVDs, looking for one that might have anything to do with an axe murderer. Out of the entire collection, only one looked even similar to what Sephiroth wanted to watch, and Cloud turned around to ask the man if it was the correct one. However, Sephiroth was staring at the ceiling and looking completely confused, so the blonde took his chances and popped it into the DVD player.

Besides, he had a feeling Sephiroth wouldn't even know what he was watching.

He turned the TV on, then the DVD player before climbing to his feet, stepping over the coffee table, and flopping back down on the couch—the _other_ end of the couch. Sephiroth blinked lazily at him, then turned his attention to the TV. Cloud sighed inaudibly; he hated horror movies from the very bottom of his heart. As the bloody scream-filled opening scene started, Cloud tugged his cell phone out of his pocket and glanced at the time. He was supposed to call Zack around eight and let him know how everything was going. Quarter of was close enough, right?

"Sir?" he ventured, cocking his head and looking at the General.

Green eyes swiveled from the TV to Cloud's face, and a silver eyebrow arched in question. "Sephiroth." he corrected.

"Sephiroth." Cloud repeated with a nod. "I need to call Zack. I'll be right out in the hall, okay?"

Sephiroth nodded his head and watched the teen leave the apartment with a frown. Then he turned back to the TV and sighed; the blonde had pretty eyes.

"Zack, I can't do this." Cloud hissed into the phone, pacing back and forth in front of Sephiroth's door. "You never gave me your key, so we're at _his_ apartment and he had me on his lap, Zack—on his _lap_! He was _nuzzling_ my _hair_."

Zack's laughter rang through the phone, and Cloud pouted, halting his pacing. "I'd think you'd be happy about that, Spike. Don't you _love_ him?" he teased, laughing again. "Don't worry about it; he gets like that. What's he doing now?"

"Very funny, Zack." Cloud grumped with a sigh. "He's watching a movie. But he's really… I don't know, _floppy_?"

"Floppy?" Zack repeated incredulously.

"His head just keeps lolling around." Cloud explained, shifting his weight. "_You're_ not that bad. You usually hold your head up on your own."

"Oh, that." the SOLDIER answered. "Have him lay down. That's what I do. He's out in like, 10 minutes tops. Usually."

"When are you coming back?" Cloud whined, opening the door slightly to check on Sephiroth. The General's head was turned to the door, but his eyes were closed. Cloud lowered his voice and carefully shut the door. "What if he tries to hold onto me again?"

Zack was quiet for a moment, then he sighed. "Look, does it _really_ bother you? If it's making you uncomfortable, just tell him. He might be fucked in the mind right now, but he's not stupid."

"But—"

"I've gotta go. I'll see you in the morning. Don't kill him!"

A dial tone filled his ears, and Cloud pulled his phone away, glaring down at it. Shaking his head, he pocketed the phone and reentered the apartment. One green eye snapped open as the door clicked shut behind him and Cloud gave a small wave at the man. A half-smile was sent back at him, and Cloud grinned widely at the General. He'd never seen a smile on the man's face, and it was actually rather charming.

"Zack said you should lie down." Cloud told him, stopping at the end of the couch. "Do you need help?"

Sephiroth shook his head slowly and struggled to pull his legs up onto the couch. When that didn't work, he simply stared at Cloud until he helped him. Once he managed to get both of the General's long legs on the couch, the man slid down and flopped like a ragdoll onto the cushions. Cloud twisted and scanned the living room for a blanket or a pillow, but found nothing. Just books, clothes, and even more books. Clearly, Sephiroth was a reader.

"Si—Sephiroth," he quickly corrected himself, crouching in front of the couch. "Do you have any extra blankets or pillows?"

Sephiroth just stared at him with those eerily pale green eyes. And then he leaned forward and grabbed Cloud by the back and the neck and pulled him close, putting his mouth close to the side of the cadet's head. "Bedroom." he whispered, his breath hot against the shell of Cloud's ear.

Cloud involuntarily shivered, shoving himself away from the couch and falling back onto his ass. He stared at the General—who started laughing to himself again—with wide eyes for a few seconds before scrambling to his feet and darting out of the room. Legs shaking, he checked each door in the hallway until he found Sephiroth's room. He slipped inside and stood there, staring down. He had a _slight_ problem. And _really_ hoped the General hadn't noticed in his out of the bag state. What had Zack said about making that go away? Think of something that creeped him out.

So he thought of Hojo trying to jerk him off.

And it almost worked—that is, until Sephiroth coughed in the living room and that morning's dream came tumbling back into Cloud's mind.

He was standing in the Great General Sephiroth's—who was loopy—bedroom, and he was hard. So he covered his ears, and had a _fantasy_ of _Hojo_. It was the most uncomfortable twenty seconds of his life, but it worked. Sighing in relief, he shook his head and poked around the room. It was enormous—much larger than Zack's bedroom. A door on the far wall was open, showing rows of uniforms hanging neatly inside. Shrugging, Cloud headed for it, figuring extra blankets would at least be in the closet.

They were not.

But Cloud did find a dirty magazine. For _boys_.

He gaped down at the cover displaying a very naked _man_. The General was _gay_? Another cough echoed down the hall, and Cloud hastily shoved it back to the closet, jumping to his feet and heading to the bed instead. He was blushing furiously and felt like an intruder as he carefully folded a blanket and grabbed a pillow off of the bed. By the time he stumbled back down the hallway and into the living room, Sephiroth was talking to himself—or the TV. Cloud wasn't really sure; the man was staring at the TV, his lips moving and words tumbling out of his mouth.

"Alright, got a blanket and some pillows." Cloud ventured, clearing his throat.

"Don't go in there, you stupid bitch." Sephiroth growled, making it obvious that he was indeed talking to the movie. He tilted his head back and frowned at the blonde. "Cloud, she went in the room."

Cloud laughed and slid the pillow under the man's head, the blanket still tucked under his arm. "Well, you tried to warn her."

He leaned over Sephiroth, ready to drape the blanket over him, when a hand once again grabbed him by the waist and hauled him onto the couch—this time maneuvering him so he was _straddling_ the General. A blush spread across his cheeks again and he swallowed hard. Just as suddenly as he was grabbed, he was tugged down until he was against Sephiroth's bare chest, his cheek resting on the man's collarbone. A content sigh escaped Sephiroth's lips and he threaded his fingers through Cloud's hair.

"S-Sir?" Cloud squeaked, eyes wide. He squirmed and tried to sit up.

"You like me." Sephiroth calmly stated, voice firm. Cloud stilled in his grip. "Zack's loud."

"I-I—" Cloud pushed himself up, trying desperately to untangle himself from the blanket—and the General. "I—um, you—we—Zack—"

"Am I mistaken?" Sephiroth asked, cocking an eyebrow and holding onto Cloud's hips.

And poor Cloud just gawked at him. "You—You were _faking_ it?" he squeaked, his voice high.

The General shook his head slowly, blinking his eyes warily. "Not faking anything." he murmured. "Mako only slows me down—it doesn't effect me the way it does Zack."

"Well, that's something he didn't mention." Cloud said to himself, crossing his arms and looking away.

"Do you like me?"

It was a simple question, but it left Cloud spluttering nonsense. Finally, he nodded slowly, his face red. Heavy hands pulled him back down and after an awkward moment of shifting his weight so he wasn't completely on the tired General, Cloud lay with his face once again pressed to the man's bare chest, watching the blood and gore that was the horror movie he'd put on.

"I could get used to this." Sephiroth whispered with a content sigh, wrapping one arm tighter around the cadet.

Not another word was said, but Cloud did thoughtfully reach for the blanket and drag it up over the two of them. It was odd laying in an unfamiliar home, snuggled up to his General and watching a young lady get her arm chopped off. Sephiroth's heartbeat was much slower than Cloud's own—he assumed it was from the make bath—and his skin was warm to the touch. Fingers slid through his hair, and Cloud slowly fell asleep, soon followed by Sephiroth.

That was exactly how Zack found the two when he returned from his mission at five in the morning. He knocked gently, then just barged right in and froze in the doorway, eyebrows high. He had expected Sephiroth to be back to his usual self—sarcastic and bossy—by now. He expected to be tackled by a nervous wreck of a cadet. He didn't expect to see Cloud wrapped up in Sephiroth's arms under a giant blanket with a chocobo on it. Grinning, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, snapped a picture, and backed out of the apartment.

He'd keep that picture to himself. For blackmailing purposes, of course.

* * *

><p><strong>Ugh, sap. Ewwwww.<strong>

**This was finished about a week or so ago, but I put off posting it because I wanted to finish something.**

**I've made another sequel to one of my other stories. Which one? It's a secretttt. But the story's done, and it should be up sometime next week.**

**Also! I'm going to make a serious attempt at replying to my reviews now. I did it every so often before, but now I am determined. lol**

**Thank you for reading. Leave a review~?**


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